James Hardman said he learned about the grant in Matthew Lesko's ''Free Money to Change Your Life,'' a guide book to government programs that Lesko advertises on television, wearing a business suit decorated with multicolored question marks.

The federal ''Immediate Threat and Danger'' grants are administered in Georgia by the state Department of Community Affairs and provide relief to residents who face hardships caused by natural disasters, including drought.

The grant provides money for either deepening existing wells or drilling new ones but does not cover costs of pumps or equipment for the wells. To qualify, a family's annual income must be 80 percent or less of the county's median income, according to Rick Huber, Department of Community Affairs compliance manager. For Madison County, the median income is $47,500, so a family of four with an income of $38,000 would qualify, Huber said.

Hardman said he began looking for help last December after his family's 45-foot well had been dry for four months. He called as many local agencies as he could think of, from Community Connection of Northeast Georgia to the Madison County Health Department. He spoke with county commissioners, his state representative and even experts at the University of Georgia.

''I just had to find someone who was willing to say, 'OK, we'll help,' '' Hardman said.

Hardman said he had bought Lesko's book shortly after it came out in 1996, as part of a plan to start a greenhouse and plant nursery business.

''I had other plans for the book,'' he said. ''It's kind of a useful tool to use all the time.''

After he began making telephone calls seeking help for his dry well, Hardman decided on a whim to consult the book and found the grant.

When he found out about the Immediate Threat program, Hardman contacted Madison County commissioners, who began working on the grant application.

Hardman's girlfriend, Nancy Clark, posted a sign at a local coin laundry, urging people with well problems to contact her so she could compile a list of people who would apply for the grant. Madison County commissioners also ran advertisements in a local newspaper seeking applicants, Hardman said.

John Scoggins, chairman of the Madison County Industrial Authority, said wells have run dry all over the county. Last year -- the second year of a statewide drought -- more than 200 wells were reported dry in Madison County according to information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scoggins said.

Bobby Smith, Department of Community Affairs manager of grantee services, said all 39 Madison County families who applied will benefit from the federal grant if the county's application is approved. A department review should be completed by the end of the week. If all goes as planned, drilling of new wells could begin next week, he said.

The county could receive up to $117,000 from the grant program. Huber said the grant amount was determined by what the county estimated it would need.

Anticipating that the grant would be approved, Madison County commissioners awarded a contract last month to Oglethorpe County-based Welch Well Drillers. Welch bid $6 per linear foot.

Smith said Madison County is the only Northeast Georgia county to apply for the grant because of dry wells, although the city of Madison in Morgan County received one to boost the city's water system. Several south Georgia counties have applied for the grant.

Hardman, his girlfriend and her teen daughter spent eight months without running water when the family's well went dry last fall. Besides lining the outside of their home with buckets to catch rainwater, the family hauled water from anywhere with an outdoor spigot.

The family used rainwater to flush toilets and bathed using buckets of water heated on the stove.

''It was bad, but you do what you have to do when you're stuck like that,'' Hardman said.

Although the family's well had water again in May, they keep empty milk jugs and buckets on hand just in case -- and the family has qualified for a new well through the grant program.

''You never know when it's going to go out again,'' Clark explained.

The grant program isn't the only possible solution to water problems in Madison County.

In the unincorporated Black Creek Church community off Georgia Highway 98, residents may soon get their water from the city of Commerce in neighboring Jackson County. Roughly 170 households could benefit from the system, Scoggins said.

Madison County officials have talked about buying water wholesale from Commerce for the past few years, Scoggins said. Commerce has already extended its waterlines to the Madison County line.

Madison County would be responsible for installing waterlines to the Black Creek Church area. Residents would pay the county for water they use each month, and the county in turn would pay the Commerce water department, Scoggins said.

''Those who don't have it buy from those who do,'' he said.

At an informational meeting last month, nearly 50 families in the area expressed interest in the idea.

One resident at the meeting said he has four wells on his property and still doesn't have water, Scoggins said. Another spends more than $25 each month on bottled water because his well water tastes bad.

''It was like horror stories,'' he said.

A second meeting to gauge residents' interest will be held later this month, Scoggins said. After the industrial authority analyzes information about interest from the two meetings, it would take about six months to get the waterlines installed and running, Scoggins said.

To implement the program, Scoggins said between 10 and 15 homes would have to be connected to each mile of the waterlines. A mile of waterline six inches in diameter costs between $100,000 to $120,000 to install, he said.

Scoggins said neither monthly water rates nor water hook-up costs have been determined for the project. The fees will be determined based on wholesale costs of water. He did say that the average cost of connecting to a water system in north Georgia ranges from $450 to $1,000.

While Hardman and his family look forward to the security and relief a deeper well will provide, he said he wishes more families could have benefited from the grant program.

''I'm sure there's a lot of people who are dry and don't know what to do,'' he said.

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, August 5, 2001.